Look at the future of families

In South Korea the colliding intersection between tradition and demographics is probably at its most extreme – see Economist article “I don’t“. However the same kinds of effects are being seen all over the developed world, and increasingly in parts of the underdeveloped world.

The proportion of single people in Seoul more than doubled between 1990 and 2010, and they now account for 16% of households. Four in ten South Korean adults are unmarried, the highest share among the 34 OECD countries. In Seoul over a third of women with degrees are single.

One reason is that wedding expenses, mostly met by the groom and often including the couple’s first home, have become prohibitive for many. Another is that Korean families used to be so desperate to have sons that in the 1980s they aborted lots of daughters. Now one in seven men of marriageable age lacks a potential partner.

Also, some women want to “marry up”, which is harder now that so many women have degrees and good jobs. Many others are no longer prepared to play the role of a traditional wife. The mean age at which women marry has risen from 25 in 1995 to 30 today.

Social expectations have yet to catch up.

The birth selection is an issue that pops up all over various countries because of decisions made by parents back in the 1980s. But the really strong factor is other social expectations.

Some snipe that these women’s “marriage strike” is selfish and unpatriotic, by which they mean that they would like women to carry on shouldering nearly all the burden of housework, child care and looking after ageing in-laws. Even otherwise modern-minded online men’s clubs, such as “I Love Soccer”, have taken to deriding feminists and calling women’s forums childish. Birth rates in most rich countries have plummeted in recent decades (see article)—but further and faster in South Korea than almost anywhere else.

Successive governments have regarded the promotion of traditional marriage as a way to boost procreation, says Kwonkim Hyun-young, a lecturer in gender studies at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul. This does not seem to work. Granted, the stigma against cohabitation remains strong: only 0.2% of Korean households consist of unwed couples, compared with 10% in Britain and 19% in Sweden. But rather than getting hitched, many women remain single. And many married couples are having only one child: the number of children beyond a first fell by 37% between 2010 and 2013. So long as South Korean wives and mothers are expected to behave like their mothers did in the 1960s, many women will opt to fly solo instead.

The thing that seems to boost fertility most is subsidised child care. By cutting the cost of combining work and motherhood, this encourages both. Subsidised nurseries were pioneered in France, a country that has worried about national vigour ever since it was thrashed in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. It has been rewarded with one of the highest fertility rates in Europe. Cheap nurseries have also helped boost Quebec’s birth rate from one of the lowest of all Canadian provinces to one of the highest.

Few rich countries will ever go back to a fertility rate of 2.1, the magic number which means that the population remains stable. And persuading women in southern Europe or East Asia to have more sprogs will be especially hard. Birth rates there have fallen so far and so fast that they may never bounce back. Countries like South Korea are stuck in a cultural bind: women fought their way into university and good jobs, but family life is far less egalitarian (see article). Many women face a stark choice between an interesting career or a life making bulgogi and tempura.

Yet a culture can change, and the state can nudge it. Creating lots of good, subsidised nurseries would signal that women can keep pursuing a career, if they want to, even after having children. That would be good for women, good for productivity and good for the public coffers.

I can see exactly the same kinds of things happened here as are happening in Seoul. The effects are leavened more by our looser culture and high immigration.

Unlike the world I grew up in during the 1960s, women now make up close to half of our workforce – albeit still extremely underpaid in many areas. But exactly the same life choices for women that are laid so starkly bare in South Korea also apply to one degree or another here.

As Stephanie pointed out in June, even having children is actively frowned upon by our rather short-sighted employers. Women are effectively given a choice by the expectations of their employers to make a choice between having a career or spending some years raising children. Even if they have a partner willing to share the work to raise kids, the stereotypes land the work and the role squarely on women. They effectively carry far more of all of the costs (and risks) of having children.

It is hardly surprising that given a choice between having a career that they are involved with and trained for, and having children – they are increasingly picking the career. By any rational economic measure that is the correct choice. And in our modern world, increasingly economics is overriding biology.

But even without this, increasingly just being a parent is unaffordable. Parent(s) need to have two steady incomes to even have a place to live, especially in Auckland. To buy a property for raising children requires reasonably low debt levels and a deposit. But something like a third of our younger adults go through tertiary institutions and pick up large student debts that they start paying off as they start their careers, usually on lower wages than they will receive later in their career. So they can’t accumulate large deposits and face the choice of having children when they can’t afford it, or have children later when their bodies in all respects are less able to handle conception, childbirth, and child-rearing.

That is also exactly the message that you get when you talk to people in their 30s who haven’t had children, have finally started making progress on paying off student debt, and who are having problems saving for deposit. They’re looking at the biological clock and their finances and deciding that they don’t have time to have kids. They are literally deciding between kids or career because of the costs.

Labour was starting to deal with this issue in their last term, both through Working For Families, and more importantly with state driven enhancements for Early Childhood Education. These were both designed to reduce the choice between career and children for parents, especially women.

It is hardly surprising that the numbers of two parent families has visibly diminished during my lifetime under a economic onslaught that makes it ever harder to provide a secure environment for raising children. Perhaps if National thought more deeply about what is required to support families that they seem to yearn for, they’d have more of them…

51 comments on “Look at the future of families”

“Perhaps if National thought more deeply about what is required to support families that they seem to yearn for, they’d have more of them…” I suspect National have indeed considered these issues and their actions would appear to indicate that immigration is their solution….and why not, it is their economic policy as well….two birds with one stone? a bargain!

+100 …good post…it states the obvious… but what is ususally obviously ignored by male dominated politics and male politicians and long term planning for women and families

…and now it is undermining the sovereignty of our country and our children’s future ( in favour of immigration and house buy ups from grossly over populated cultures where women are or have been second class citizens…ie have been without contraception and often not educated or have jobs to the same degree as males from these cultures…and where in many cases females have been aborted or killed as female babies )

Recently we have started to watch a television series now on DVD series ‘The Amazing Mrs Pritchard’ about a women’s political party in Britain….It is a good concept and maybe prescient…It is time for women to take charge of national politics …and world politics imo…for the sake of their countries, cultures, families and the planet.

That was probably because I quoted from The Economist in the first part of the post. As a hint, borrowing from clear writers to establish the scene, then applying to the local is a great way to write a easy to read post.

Thanks for this post, do you remember the ‘battle of the generations’ debate re housing, on the Nation a while back? Where Tau ‘never heard such rubbish’ Henare and Michelle ‘don’t give me evidence’ Boag actually SCOFFED at the Gen X, Y and Millenial/Zero team for ‘not having children because we can’t afford to have children’. I am certain if any on the younger panel HAD any children the scoffing boomers would have jumped on them and told them to blame themselves for being so irresponsible and having children they couldn’t afford. I was a young parent at university in the 90s racking up a student loan at 7% interest from day one, while still studying. That’s how it was back then. And no I didn’t piss it up against the wall at Shadows or go on an overseas trip with my ‘free money’ (because it wasn’t free). I didn’t take the TIA because Jenny was telling us all to be socially responsible and it was an investment in our own human capital,blah, blah, blah…didn’t want the stigma of being called a bludger, etc. stoopid me, shoulda done what Paula done. Of course no working for families (Labour) or 20 hours free childcare (Labour) or KiwiSaver (Labour) back then either. But a 17k loan did grow to 38k with the marvels of compounding interest and by the time I paid it off my child was drawing their own (thankfully, thank you, Labour) interest free student loan. Anyway, don’t own a home, maybe never will, never got married, that dream died, didn’t have any more kids (vowed to self I wouldn’t have any more kids til I was married and had own home). I think people like Tau, Michelle the generation who got everything for free really don’t get our reality. They are out of touch. They’ve never experienced it, they can’t empathise and they aren’t listening they’re so focussed on proving they’re right and we’re wrong. The most poignant moment of that debate was the youngest guy saying ‘I don’t expect to ever own a home’, and advocating for security of tenancy in law. And getting scoffed at.

…do you remember the ‘battle of the generations’ debate re housing, on the Nation a while back?

That was a complete farce.

The young were informed. Most of the aged (there was one exception) came across as ignorant shitheads who’d never bothered to learn anything much after they turned 35 – and thought that the world still ran the same way as it did 40 years ago when they were 20.

But really Henare and Boag were just jammerheads not interested in doing anything apart from being spewing up the National line.

In the late 40s my very clever Mum went started working. As a young school-aged kid this was traumatic. No other two parent families had working mums. Mum had until then always been at home when I came home from school. And now she wasn’t there. I got used to it and Mum was a very capable woman who rose up rapidly in retail, so from her point of view it was great that she could realise some of her potential. From that point onwards it seems that the shift progressed rapidly. The difference now is that both parents have to work, especially if on minimum wages. And any kids are farmed out to child-care to act as proxy parents. Didn’t the Spartans do that?

What do we hope will be the future for families? Probably the answer lies with the 1%ers.

The logic you are applying is the exactly the one that says the best thing that should be done is to impose on everyone (else usually) and release a war-engineered pathogen to scour the world population.

For everything less than that, the general idea is to go for softer landings than planetary population annihilation, and be in a position to repair the damage that has already been done.

There are always major costs involved in any revolutionary change. Demographics is at present going through it in almost every country in the world apart from Africa. Falling birthrates mean that the inter-generational trade offs are failing. And almost everything in the governmental systems from roads to superannuation.

The prime end effect appears to be the kind of economic malaise that has held Japan for the last couple of decades resulting in them neither being able to restructure their industrial systems to a more sustainable form, nor to become the world leader in sustainable systems that they clearly have the capability to be. As it stands, I suspect the entire culture will remain in a stasis for at least another generation or two until they work through their indigestible body of superannuates.

*sigh*, remember that the greenhouse gases you are looking at have residence times in the thousands of years especially in the oceans. So we either live with the effects or we start figuring out how to reverse the effects (when we finally get around to stopping increasing them).

That requires working societies with the required spare resources / wealth to do so. It also means that we need to take care of those societies because they are the only tool we have to do the job apart from large amounts of time after a massive dieback of humans. Societies don’t do new work, even required work when they are broken.

You need to learn to think strategically rather then just gazing at (and seemingly hoping for) the apocalypse

The prime end effect appears to be the kind of economic malaise that has held Japan for the last couple of decades resulting in them neither being able to restructure their industrial systems to a more sustainable form, nor to become the world leader in sustainable systems that they clearly have the capability to be.

Part of the reason for that, and it’s occurring everywhere, is because they over produced for export rather than solely producing for the local market. When you only produce for the local market then productivity increases allow the local populace to produce everything it needs. Massive over production for export results in economic and social malaise. We see the same here with our over dependence upon farming.

Declining birth rates are as much a symptom, as they are a cause. My own view is that if we are lucky, we will be back down to 1B-2B humans by 2200. Those numbers would suggest a “soft landing” type scenario. If not, the numbers will be 1/10 that.

We are living through the de-industrialising economic decline of post peak-energy right now. It doesn’t matter what games of financial musical chairs the powers that be enact, this is an inevitable process which is going to play out over the next century and apart from a few spasmodic blips of short lived and tenuous economic growth, the long term trend will be that of retrenchment.

A young couple making the decision to have children now is a huge act of faith.

The wealth of modern global society comes from the energy and mineral resources that it can extract and process, and the quality and affordability of such is in permanent decline. Bringing an energy rich country like Iran which is full of cheap untapped conventional oil back into the fold will be of help for a few decades of course. But the only remaining truly new lands we can conquer and exploit for physical resources are in the Arctic and the Antarctic, and doing so will guarantee a miserable short existence for humanity.

Thinking strategically requires a correct assessment of the strategic environment and identifying the strategic factors which are going to be decisive. As populations get poorer, resources like good food and good water harder to come by, but levels of education still maintained (for the moment), expect to see fertility rates destabilise further, both on the down side and the upside.

And the elite 0.1% will go even further in their quest to maintain their own position at the cost of everyone else’s. If there is to be any true “revolution” than the issue of the 0.1% will have to be addressed.

your confidence in a functioning society in the not too distant future, let alone one with sufficient resources to successfully perform the mammoth task you describe can at best be described as optimistic, particularly when one considers the disruption a mere 100,000 refugees a year causes in our most advanced societies….I would suggest the glass is not only not half full but has slipped from our grasp.

particularly when one considers the disruption a mere 100,000 refugees a year causes in our most advanced societies…

What disruption.

0.027%

Hammond said that the migrants would speed the collapse of the European social order. In reality, the number of migrants to have arrived so far this year (200,000) is so minuscule that it constitutes just 0.027% of Europe’s total population of 740 million. The world’s wealthiest continent can easily handle such a comparatively small influx.

[…]

1.2 million

There are countries with social infrastructure at breaking point because of the refugee crisis – but they aren’t in Europe. The most obvious example is Lebanon, which houses 1.2 million Syrian refugees within a total population of roughly 4.5 million. To put that in context, a country that is more than 100 times smaller than the EU has already taken in more than 50 times as many refugees as the EU will even consider resettling in the future. Lebanon has a refugee crisis. Europe – and, in particular, Britain – does not.

yes the vast majority of refugees are not arriving on europes doorstep…and that reinforces my point….how are they dealing with the minuscule number currently …not how could they, how are they? and then multiply that by ten,a hundred …maybe add in a collapsing economy …..do you believe that as the numbers increase their response will improve? do you believe we will behave any differently? or the Australians?…the Americans?

..and that will not be a patch on what could occur under the worst case scenarios,……. and the current 50 mil is occurring in a relatively stable economic, social, climatic environment where all our first world luxuries are still available

Personally I would want choice. Should both parents really have to work and therefore put their kids into childcare? At what level.

It has been shown to be harmful to children to go into childcare as babies as their is higher levels of stress for them.

I would like to see the discourse widened to society making it easier for a parent to care for their child for up to 3 or 4 years. These are critical years for children as their personality, emotions and wellbeing are being developed.

This might not suit all parents but I feel their should be some sort of choice and support as to the choice of child care of looking after kids by a parent.

Peter Dunn has the idea that if a parent stays at home to look after kids their income is taxed between both parents for example. Ideas like that can help.

There should also be more support for early childhood care and more support at a maternity level.

I can already hear the trolls firing up, with this talk of valuing children and WORSE financial support for them.

There used to be child support payments made to parents – that’s how my parents got their deposit for their house. In addition the house they bought was built by the state, and able to be purchased off the state at cost.

It is considered fine that our taxpayers assets are sold cheap overseas to be an asset for a foreign national to profit from like power and housing.

Now we have moved to this short sighted neoliberal way of ‘user pays’ for everything. What are the costs of this ‘short term’ neoliberal model of making everything about money and short term profit?

Immigration has been the answer to these governments focus of depriving young people of support.

It started with student loans – when we were told that Doctors were not a public good and necessary to be trained here as it was too expensive and only they benefit from it we can just import them in fully trained through immigration. Now we just import doctors in and our Kiwi trained ones depart to pay off their loans. Not sure how efficient that system is long term.

Likewise with children the same ideas. They are considered a personal choice not as a citizen of NZ who we want to raise to be the best person they can be and make this country better.

Social good replaced by Social bonds – traded by banks and the rich to increase their profits.

Labour helped create a massive private sector professional child care industry. What we really need as you point out are financial options for parents to stay at home and look after their children themselves – whether it is decent single wages or home support payments for parents instead of feeding the $$$ into the child care industry private sector.

It has been shown to be harmful to children to go into childcare as babies as their is higher levels of stress for them.

It has not. It has been asserted, via studies carried out by conservative groups with a mothers-belong-in-the-home agenda, but that’s about it. Give it the same credence as the studies that have “shown” abortion causes breast cancer.

1. In some cases, because you have a job to go to. 2. In some cases, because you lack interest in looking after children full time. 3. In some cases, because you want more money than you can get child-minding. 4. In some cases, because professionals will do a much better job of early childhood education than you would. 5. In all cases, because it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money to fund amateurs to look after one or two children apiece when you can fund professionals to look after them in bulk.

Education cost is the big deal in Korea – social class was largely defined by education so it is fiercely competitive. Whether this can be improved by innovations like blended learning delivery is somewhat doubtful while it functions as much as a social exclusion mechanism as it does as an education system.

Evidently you are caught in some kind of a strobe effect, seeing points in a process rather than the process itself (mind you that kind of discontinuity of perception probably does explain a lot about your opinions). Or it could be thta you are a bit ignorant.

The world needs a steadily declining population. It isn’t there yet but it is getting close. Play around on this interactive graph

However when you exclude immigration NZ, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, and most of the world are already in that position of declining populations. The problem is that in some of these nations the rate of increase is declining rather too fast causing other structural issues. Which is what this post is about.

If you don’t want to discuss that, then I’d suggest you don’t comment on this post.

Unlike the world I grew up in during the 1960s, women now make up close to half of our workforce – albeit still extremely underpaid in many areas. But exactly the same life choices for women that are laid so starkly bare in South Korea also apply to one degree or another here.

Then it’s up for discussion. not sure why you removed the youtube link. I think your machine has issues. Try removing the ssl link.

Why is any potential decline an issue in the NZ context? You haven’t explained why WE should be concerned about this. Indeed given our rather open Immigration policy and increasing population we should be doing more to reduce the birth rate not increase it.

With lack of action on global warming Con fused your wishes will be fulfilled. Humans will cease to exist. But right whingers like you don’t have any human attributes. Still stuck in the Neanderthal mentality of only the strongest survive .now the richest only deserve to survive.

“That is also exactly the message that you get when you talk to people in their 30s who haven’t had children, have finally started making progress on paying off student debt, and who are having problems saving for deposit. They’re looking at the biological clock and their finances and deciding that they don’t have time to have kids. They are literally deciding between kids or career because of the costs.”

I really do feel for. Those who do decide they want to have children (unlike people like me are child free by choice) are now at the point where it’s external influences that are preventing them from having them. That, surely must cause some resentment.

If I were in their shoes I’d feel let down by a government who wasn’t prepared to contribute via a number of policy measures, to the nurturing and development of it’s little citizens. In the case of this current government it’s just more evidence of the indifference they have towards social well being. It’s something verging on contempt for other humans.

Families need affordable housing? Regulate the market. Nah. Parents need decent wages so both are not compelled to work full time to make ends meet? Raise wages. Nah Prospective parents put off having kids until it’s potentially too late because they have a massive student debt pile? Free or low cost tertiary education. Nah

All those things would benefit the whole of society as well, not just parents. As it is, we can barely cover our expenses week to week. I really have no idea how families cope. Hats off to ya who do.

The planet is totally over-populated, and the present world human population is totally unsustainable, so perhaps we should besides of more “1st World” citizens also put more South Asians, Africans and Latin Americans into tertiary education, so they lose the desire to pursue having too many off-spring?

I have no problem with people choosing to not have kids, as it will address one major issue we should all be worried about, un-sustainability on a global scale, caused by human and human society’s behaviour to rape and pillage resources that are finite, not thinking of tomorrow.

We need less people, and need to learn to live within our means. I also think the stupid, short sighted economic agenda of this and previous NZ governments, to create growth by increasing the population is short sighted and stupid.

We should focus on productivity, on quality gains, and diversification, than simply choosing the easy and stupid way, to simply increase the consumer and worker base. All those people will want to be looked after in ill health, when unemployed and elderly, that will cost a lot, same as housing and what else there is.

But tell that John Short Minded Opportunistic Monetary Merchant Bankster John Key and his government, they do NOT care for the future, only themselves.

NEW YORK—Expressing concerns over dwindling resources and the preservation of the environment for future generations, an adult male American cockroach was reportedly worried Thursday about what kind of kitchen cupboard he was leaving to his children. “I look at the state of this cupboard right now and see how young my nymphs are, and I’m terrified there won’t be enough graham cracker crumbs left when they’re grown up,” said the insect, adding that he sincerely hoped his offspring would have the same opportunities to safely skitter around in dark cracks and crevices behind the containers of flour and rice that he had always enjoyed. “Sometimes I lie awake wondering whether the Quaker Oatmeal Squares will still be here when I’m gone, or whether my generation has been too wasteful with the brown sugar leaking out of the plastic bag. After all, this cupboard is the only home we’ve got.” At press time, the cockroach was reportedly grappling with the ethical dilemma of bringing several hundred children into such a cupboard in the first place.

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A decade ago, the public fought a battle with Meridian Energy over the Mokihinui hydro scheme - a plan to build a dam on conservation land, flooding a scenic river gorge. Now the area has been protected forever by addign ...

Tax Working Group head, Michael Cullen, asserts that the capital gains tax (CGT) is best described as a “tax on capital income”. Since when have capital gains been income? Show me any country’s national income accounts that include them in ...

A couple of developments in the past week or so have cast a fresh light on a familiar question – should we be worried about the possibility that agents of foreign governments can buy influence in our politics and government? ...

Last year, the government announced that they would hold an inquiry into Operation Burnham, the SAS operation in which six Afghan civilians were killed, including a child. But now, it looks as if the "inquiry" is instead becoming a British-style ...

So, having rejected Theresa May's shit Brexit deal, UK MP's were told to vote until they got it right - and rejected it again. Which means that the UK is now just 16 days from Brexit and has no plan ...

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bud Ward Wally Broecker, photographed around 2010 (Credit: Bruce Gilbert, via Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) The climate science community has lost one of the real titans of its field. Geochemist Wallace Broecker – ...

. . A recent bold statement from current National Party leader, Simon Bridges, declared his intentions should a capital gains tax (CGT) be enacted; . . “…No ifs, no buts, no caveats, I will repeal this CGT as Prime Minister ...

In a Westminster-style, parliamentary democracy such as ours – and one that, despite MMP, remains essentially a two-party contest – it is inevitable that many of us will choose a side and then see nothing but good in our preferred ...

This is a guest post by Glenn Koorey from ViaStrada. Do you know how many fatal or injury road crashes there were in 2018? No, neither did I, until I looked it up. Turns out there were 11,433 injury crashes, ...

On its face, today's news that the Police have referred Jami-Lee Ross' now-five-month old allegations about Simon Bridges, the National Party and $100,000 in donations to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) looks like a very big deal.read more ...

by Daphna Whitmore The public have an opportunity to make submissions on gender identity being included in the Human Rights Act. The campaigning group Speak Up For Women are encouraging people to submit. The Ministry of Justice have opened ...

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The Governments of Australia and New Zealand have announced the membership of the Australia and New Zealand Electronic Invoicing Board (ANZEIB) today. This is an important step towards implementing e-Invoicing across both countries to help businesses save time and money ...

Workers who are paying too much tax because of incorrect secondary tax codes are in line for relief with the passage of legislation through Parliament late last night. The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018-19, Modernising Tax Administration, and Remedial Matters) ...

Efforts to reverse the decline in the Chatham Islands pāua fishery are the focus of a new plan jointly agreed between government, the local community and industry. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash says the plan was developed by the PauaMAC4 Industry ...

The Police will get stronger powers of search and seizure to crackdown on synthetic drugs under new legislation, which makes the two main synthetics (5F-ADB and AMB-FUBINACA) Class A drugs. The Government has today introduced the Misuse of Drugs Amendment ...

Further steps to combat tax evasion Revenue Minister Stuart Nash has announced New Zealand is expanding its global ability to combat tax evasion by joining forces with authorities in 30 countries and jurisdictions. Cabinet has agreed to add another ...

The New Zealand Bar Association welcomes the Government’s ban on assault rifles today. NZBA’s council member, Josh McBride, says that immediate changes to the underlying legislation are now required to ensure that all military specification ...

The New Zealand Bar Association welcomes the Government’s ban on assault rifles today. NZBA’s council member, Josh McBride, says that immediate changes to the underlying legislation are now required to ensure that all military specification ...

We are delighted for Helen Clark to become Patron of the new independent think tank with University of Auckland called “The Helen Clark Foundation.” The Helen Clark Foundation is a new organisation and needs your support to grow. Helen Clark ...

While last Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch was the first for New Zealand, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Australia and non-resident to New Zealand says his country has been victims of violence and terrorism for more than four decades. ...

"This will not be popular among some of our members but after a week of intense debate and careful consideration by our elected representatives and staff, we believe this is the only practicable solution," Feds Rural Security spokesperson Miles ...

That the accused was able to inflict so much harm in such a short time as a licensed firearm user with an easily modified semi-automatic rifle is deeply troubling and must be kept in mind as we discuss as a ...

A vigil has been organised by a coalition of community groups led by Muslims, tangata whenua and migrants standing in firm solidarity with Aotearoa’s Muslim community, following the violent white supremacist terrorist attack targeting two Christchurch ...

Auckland Council has turned topsy-turvy with its vote to approve a $63 million bailout for Eden Park, including a $10 million no-strings-attached grant, says the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance . Ratepayers’ Alliance spokesperson Jo Holmes says, “Councillors ...

After the deaths of fifty people who were in the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre at prayer on Friday, the Methodist church joins in the grief of those who bear these losses directly, and in the public grief ...

In the March edition of The Fringe Magazine Waitakere Ranges Local Board chairman Greg Presland has shared his views on the imminent lodging of the resource consent for the proposed new Huia Water Treatment Plant in Waima, Titirangi. “It is ...

Primary teachers and principals will now vote in online ballots about whether to accept the Ministry's latest collective agreement offers, following the cancellation of this week's paid union meetings. ...

In school, we all learnt the phrase, "Beware the Ides of March" courtesy of Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. The soothsayer's warning to Caesar was brushed aside and Caesar assassinated a little later in the day. For the last nearly 420 ...

A censorious and censoring attitude has engulfed responses to the mental airings of the Christchurch shooter. Material in connection with Brenton Tarrant, the alleged gunman behind the killing of 50 individuals at two mosques in New Zealand, is drying ...

The Chair of Skills Active Aotearoa, the ITO for sport, exercise, recreation and the performing arts, has described the one-week extension for submissions on the Reform of Vocational Education as “paltry”. ...

As people process the attack at two mosques in Christchurch, our Muslim whānau are hurting. But there is an outpouring of love and unity coming from across New Zealand and around the world. Thousands of people have shared messages of ...

The New Zealand Maori Council is calling on Maori from right across the nation to come out this Friday in a national show of support for the whanau and victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Christchurch. ...

Secretary to the Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf spoke to the New Zealand India Trade Alliance in Auckland last evening on the New Zealand-India economic relationship and where the Treasury sees the opportunities and obstacles between the two countries. The ...

“The conversation New Zealand is now having regarding the use of military-style semi-automatic firearms (MSSA’s) is important and the Game Animal Council wishes to clarify several aspects in relation to their use for hunting game animals,” ...

As leaders of Abrahamic faith communities we come together to offer our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to all those who have been victimised and traumatised by this evil attack on our Muslim community in Christchurch. For all of us, ...

ACC wishes to clarify that the supports and entitlements available for family members of those killed in Friday’s terrorist attack in Christchurch is the same regardless of whether they live in New Zealand or overseas. A funeral grant, a survivor’s ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) extends its deepest sympathies to the victims of the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand. We urge all the governments and the people of the world to support New Zealand’s efforts to deal with the ...

Vodafone, Spark, Vocus and 2degrees are warning all customers to be cautious of scammers looking to take advantage of Kiwi generosity and benefit from the Christchurch terror attack through fraudulent donations. ...

Fifty people died in the shooting and 31 people remain in hospital. Writing on RNZ , Anjum Rahman from the Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand detailed repeated attempts to lobby Government to stem discrimination against their community. ...

The National Church Leaders gathered in Wellington today (Tuesday 19th March 2019) to express their profound horror at the terrible violence towards Muslim people in Christchurch mosques last Friday. We are deeply saddened by these tragic events and ...

An Australian security expert says if New Zealand had stronger guns laws, Friday’s attack would not have been as devastating as it was. Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute Border Security Programme, Dr John Coyne, says, “had the New ...

Solidarity for NZ: Trade unions around the world send messages The Public Service Association (PSA) has collated messages it has received from trade unions around the world, sending their condolences and solidarity in response to the Christchurch ...

Due to the tragic acts of violence against the Muslim community in Christchurch last Friday, the “Pacific People Say NO to the End Of Life Choice Bill” at Parliament scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday 19 March has been postponed. ...

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) welcomes the inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attacks. “The Christchurch terrorist attacks are a horrific demonstration of violent extremism which has no place in New Zealand. NZSIS offers ...

“The attacks on Friday were an abhorrent challenge to everything that New Zealand holds dear. GCSB’s thoughts are with the families, friends and communities of the victims at this time,” said Andrew Hampton, Director-General of GCSB. ...

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of New Zealand, in condemning the recent massacre of innocent Muslims, calls on the people of Aotearoa to examine the destructive social forces that led to Friday's tragedy. “We extend our heartfelt ...

On behalf of all Grey Power Members and Associations I would like to extend our condolences and deepest sympathy’s to the victims and their families of the horrendous attacks that occurred in Christchurch this week. As New Zealanders we stand ...

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Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Bi-partisan changes to gun laws announced, immigration minister urged to step in on visas of attack victim families, and stats lay bare Islamophobia in media.The first major law change since the ...

The former NZ PM says the global policy boss for the online behemoth has contacted her saying he wants to visit NZ, following an angry backlash against the platform over its livestream of a mass terrorist murder at a Christchurch ...

The Christchurch Mosque Shootings saw journalists scrambling the country over to cover the unfolding horror. New Zealand’s subreddit experienced an unprecedented rush too, swamping the volunteer moderators and exposing them to some of the worst reactions on Reddit. We speak ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With the election likely to be called in about a fortnight – the weekend after the April 2 budget – behind the scenes Labor is ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin University The future management of New South Wales’s national parks is one of the issues on the line in Saturday’s state election. Other states will ...

KiwiSaver fund manager Milford Asset Management dumped its shareholdings in social media giant Facebook on Monday and joined the call from government-backed retirement fund managers for Facebook, Google and Twitter to take greater care monitoring content posted to social media ...

Farmers and investors will need to be patient with Fonterra Cooperative Group's overhaul of its business, which sometime-critic First NZ Capital analyst Arie Dekker says is moving in the right direction. ...

Armed police bedecked with flowers amid heightened national security following the Christchurch mosque attacks last Friday. Traditionazlly, New Zealand police are unarmed. Image: Sulzy/Twitter By RNZ News Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today announced a New Zealand ban on all ...

The government’s language so far is imprecise and it must word its ban carefully to stand up against a ferocious lobby from pro-gun groups.New Zealand lawmakers will need to write the law banning semi-automatic weapons so that it can’t be ...

Twenty years ago – before Instagram – a game about documenting your every move was released. That game was Pokémon Snap.The year was 1999. Hilary Swank was playing Brandon Teena, something that would now absolutely not be allowed. Troye Sivan was basically a fetus, ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne When Judge Peter Kidd sentenced Cardinal George Pell last week, it was broadcast live on radio and television. It was ...

To mark the launch of the Helen Clark Foundation’s first report, its executive director Katherine Errington writes about New Zealand’s potential to become a ‘green’ hydrogen exporter.Much has been written about hydrogen of late, debating its place in the transition ...

Literal fake news is fuelling attempts to divide New Zealand’s religious communities, writes Aaron Hendry, an Auckland youth worker and Christian.In the wake of Friday’s horrific attack there is no doubt that New Zealand has changed. But perhaps one of ...

Political Roundup: Playing the Christchurch terrorism blame-game is dangerous by Dr Bryce Edwards Dr Bryce Edwards.Jacinda Ardern has led the way in how she’s responded to the Christchurch terrorist atrocity. The prime minister has emphasised the need to come ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kotzmann, Lecturer in Law, Deakin University Your lipstick and foundation will be less likely to come at the expense of animal welfare, thanks to Commonwealth legislation that passed in recent weeks. ...

PGG Wrightson’s largest shareholder Alan Lai and his company Agria have been fined $220,000 and ordered to pay another $30,000 in costs by the High Court for breaching good character conditions imposed by the Overseas Investment Office. ...

The fifth work in Yona Lee’s In Transit series is currently exhibiting at Wellington’s City Gallery. Megan Dunn writes on the aspirations of the piece and how comfortably it sits in a gallery context.On a Sunday afternoon I opened my laptop and ...

New Zealand’s economy grew less than the central bank expected in the fourth quarter but economists don't expect the data to spur any change in the Reserve Bank's message at next week's policy review. ...

The sudden closure of Wellington’s Central Library was a shock to residents in the capital. Gem Wilder reflects on her love for the library and her hopes for its future.I received the news via the Wellington City Council twitter account, ...

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Rassell, Nanoartist and creative-practice based researcher in Media, RMIT University As an experimental video-maker working at scales smaller than molecules, I surround myself in a variety of scientific visualisations. In reading ...

How dare our national airline continue to brand itself with Indigenous symbols while rejecting employees who wear those same symbols on their bodies, writes Leonie Pihama.As I sit at a conference on the island of Maui, I see tā moko ...

The removal of extremist content alone isn’t going to solve the problem of right-wing terrorism. Instead, we need to harness new technology to find such individuals early and intervene.Last week, 50 lives in Christchurch were lost in another act of ...

The PM has confirmed an inquiry will be held into the circumstances leading up to the Christchurch terrorist attacks. Alex Braae asks they will have to look into.In the wake of the terrorist attack in Christchurch, questions are being raised ...

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – March 21 2019Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. The Beehive and Parliament Buildings.Today’s contentChristchurch mosque shootings ...

The pending announcement of the Sunwolves’ exit from Super Rugby points to a collective agreement from the SANZAAR unions that the Nations Championship is the future. However, trickle-down economics may be a hard sell for their constituents. The dollars are ...

This Race Relations Day, we call on all New Zealanders to take time out of their day to reflect. To stand united in mourning with victims of Christchurch, write Pancha Narayanan president of Multicultural New Zealand, and Paul Hunt, the chief ...